Documents / Hearing transcript

Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

U.S. House of Representatives · 1968-07-29 · 256 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.

  • p. 7 …We approach the question of unidentified flying objects as purely a scientific problem, one of unanswered…
  • p. 9 …Civilian with U.S. Navy 1944. Scientific Societies: American Association for the Advancement of Science; Astronomy…
  • p. 10 4 subject as rank nonsense, the product of silly seasons, and a peculiarly American craze that…
  • p. 11 …Thus my scientific reticence was based on a carefully weighed decision. In attempting analysis of the…
  • p. 24 …American Association for Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Society, Sigma Xi, American Geophysical Union, Royal Meteorological…
  • p. 30 …witnesses, members of the staff of the American Newspaper Publishers Associa- tion, were the witnesses in…
  • p. 46 …Scientists will tend to be put off by some of his scientific commentary, as well as…
  • p. 47 …Information on some of these, as well as on smaller American groups, can be found in…
  • p. 76 …have been ignored as indicators of some scientifically intriguing problem demand- ing intensive study.2. Case…
  • p. 91 …UFOs—An International Scientific Problem, paper presented at a Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Canadian Aeronautics…
  • p. 118 …Navy, 1944-45.Scientific Societies: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancementof Science, Society of…
  • p. 131 …Phillips, American Scientist, v. 53, no. 1, p. 32). Fused silica fibers have been stressed to…
  • p. 132 …Baker's professional society memberships include the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, Phi…
  • p. 147 …REFERENCES (1) The "American Nautical Almanac" 1950. (2) H. 0. No. 214, "Tables of Computed Altitude…
  • p. 156 …00060 "Influence of Martian Ephemeris and Constants on Interplanetary Trajectories," Chapter in Exploration of Mars, American…
  • p. 202 …25 adult Americans has seen a UFO. Judging from the one detailed, official, scientific investigation that…
  • p. 204 …Originally operated jointly by Harvard and the University of Colorado, this scientific institution is now wholly…
  • p. 213 …a paper presented in a symposium sponsored by Division 21, Engineering Psychology, at the American Psychological…
  • p. 214 …As a member of the Parapsychological Association and the American So- ciety of Clinical Hypnosis, I…
  • p. 215 …1) The Scientific Attitude Survey ( Sprinkle, 1962) is not useful in assessing "scientific" attitudes, and/or…
  • p. 217 …Henderson is a member of Alpha Chi, the American Geophysical Union, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists…
  • p. 220 214 Professional affiliations include the American Physical Society, the American Nuclear Society, the American Institute of…
  • p. 223 …of the Astronautical Sciences'the American Engineer 2020 Industrial Research,' Scientific Research'8 Aviation Week and…
  • p. 225 …A., "UFO's Merit Scientific Study," Science, October 21, 1966, and Astro- nautic8 d Aeronautics, December…
  • p. 226 …of Baltimore Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Local sections of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics…
  • p. 251 …Scientific American, 200: 117-128.
98
Mr.
Rousii.
Suppose
we
discover
there
is life
on
Mars,
in
some
form,
wouldn't
this
almost
cinch
your
case,
and you
could
say
there
is
extra-
terrestrial
life?
Dr.
SAGAN.
Yes,
sir;
it
certainly
would, but
not
cinch
our
case
about
extraterrestrial intelligence.
'Conceivably, there
might
be
a low
form
on
Mars. If
there
is
Martian
life,
it
is
of
interest
how
low
it
is.
If
there
is
intelligence
on
Mars—but we
don't
know
there
is
intelligence
on
Mars—then
we
don't
have
to
grasp
that
evolution
process.
Mr.
Rousx.
I
would
like
to
finish
this
morning's
session
just
by
telling
of
a
cartoon
I
saw
which
I
think
Dr.
Hynek
perhaps
saw
and
enjoyed
as
much
as
I
did.
It
showed a
flying
saucer
hovering over the
Earth,
with
little
green
men
looking
down,
and
one
turned
to
the
other
and
said,
"Do
you
suppose
it is
swamp
gas
?"[Laughter.]
Dr.
HYNEK.
That
is
a
good
statement to
close
the
session
on.
Mr.
Rousn.
We
shall
reconvene at
2
o'clock
this
afternoon.
(Whereupon,
at
12:15
p.m.,
the hearing
was
recessed
to
reconveneat
2
p.m.)

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.